SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is the main protagonist and eponymous character of the Nickelodeon animated comedy series of the same name. He was designed by former marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, and is voiced by Tom Kenny. He first appeared on television in the series' pilot episode "Help Wanted." SpongeBob is a childish, joyful, eccentric sea sponge who lives in a pineapple on 124 Conch Street with his pet snail Gary and pet scallop Shelley in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, a job in which he is exceptionally skilled. He attends Mrs. Puff's Boating School, though has yet to receive a driver's license due to his inability to drive a boatmobile. SpongeBob lacks a lot of knowledge and is a constant annoyance to those around him, but he is very good-natured. He appears in all of the episodes in the series, except for "The Algae's Always Greener," in which his alternate-universe counterpart appears instead. He was soon to be Nickelodeon's main mascot. Description SpongeBob is a sea sponge, but he is drawn to resemble a kitchen sponge, being rectangular and light yellow with a light olive-green outline. In earlier episodes, he is wider near the top and gets skinnier going further down. However, in the more recent episodes, he is more of a regular square shape. SpongeBob has large light blue eyes, a long, slightly curved nose, a large mouth with two prominent front buck teeth, dimples with three freckles on each cheek, and light olive-green pores. Although vaguely seen in the series, he has light yellow hair, as seen on his driver's license and in the episode "The Sponge Who Could Fly." However, in the episode "Krusty Krab Training Video," he did not have yellow hair, and instead had a simple strand of black hair. He typically wears a white shirt with a scarlet-red tie, black leather shoes with white shoelaces, white socks with blue and red stripes, and brown rectangular pants with a black belt (the entire outfit is sometimes referred to as his "pants," hence his name). While working at the Krusty Krab, he wears a tall, white hat with a small blue anchor on it as a uniform. SpongeBob usually sleeps in his underwear, and at other times, pajamas (beginning with season 5). However, he occasionally sleeps with his entire outfit on, which was more common in the show's earlier seasons. Though SpongeBob has always been voiced by Tom Kenny, his voice has changed over the course of the series; his voice is lower than normal in the pilot episode and after the first movie, his voice gets slightly higher-pitched. In season 8, his voice gets lower-pitched once again. Personality SpongeBob is a clueless, abnormal, immature, fun-loving, and hyperactive person with a happy-go-lucky personality. He is extremely determined and will often stop at nothing to accomplish a task. He is also somewhat dramatic to the people who are kind to him: for example, to Norton the mailfish. He is also over-confident. Sometimes, though, he shows his devious side when trying to get Mr. Krabs and Plankton to work together. He sometimes tends to make mountains out of molehills, such as losing his name tag. SpongeBob is very kind-hearted and innocent, and very rarely acts openly mean to anyone, even those who find him an annoyance and act cruel to him. He is a very selfless and loyal person, especially towards those close to him. His selfless nature is most notably shown in "Best Day Ever]]," where he sacrifices his "perfect day" to help his friends. Despite his well-meaning intentions, SpongeBob's actions often annoy and cause trouble for those around him, most notably his next-door neighbor, Squidward Tentacles. SpongeBob can become scared easily and usually panics when frightened. He is afraid of the dark and clowns. He also hates hot sauce. Occasionally, SpongeBob is too ignorant to notice impending danger and his unworldly thinking may put himself or others in peril. He also cannot detect lies or malice information as easy as the other characters, mainly due to his naive nature. SpongeBob's innocence also makes him overly trusting and very gullible, and he is easily manipulated by people who intend to use and/or harm him, such as Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and Plankton; most noticeably, he is always easily fooled by Plankton no matter how bizarre or obvious his disguises are. Even though he is generally good-natured and easygoing, when frustrated and angered, SpongeBob can be sarcastic, rude, and "foul-mouthed" to his friends, even Mr. Krabs, whom he treats as a father figure. Ironically, Squidward is the only character whom SpongeBob never insults when he is angry, with the exception of the episodes "Can You Spare a Dime?" and "Breath of Fresh Squidward." Despite his overall kindness, SpongeBob occasionally shows a lack of empathy for others and thus forces people into situations against their will. For example, in the episode "Rodeo Daze," he kidnaps the Bikini Bottomites with bubbles in persuasion for them to save Sandy from a rodeo. Additionally, in the episode "A SquarePants Family Vacation," he sends his friends letters promising that everything they love will be at his house, only for it to be a hoax and a plea for them to view his slideshow. Although SpongeBob has several friends, and many of the citizens of Bikini Bottom]] often treat him quite friendly, most, if not all, citizens of the city have been shown to have some degree of dislike for him. In the episode "Gone," it is shown that a holiday called "National No SpongeBob Day" has been started by the citizens of Bikini Bottom. As its name suggests, it is an entire day dedicated to getting away from SpongeBob, where the people leave Bikini Bottom for the day. Even Patrick goes, stating that everyone needs at least one day away from SpongeBob's laughter. In the ceremony, they build a giant wooden effigy of SpongeBob, burn it down, dance on the ashes, and depart Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob is more honored than insulted by this, as he was the "inspiration" for the holiday. Antagonistic side SpongeBob is intelligent and his antagonism does not excuse him at all, including his annoyance. *In "Ripped Pants," he tricks Frank the lifeguard into thinking he is dying, but it was a prank just to say he ripped his beach pants. *In "Pizza Delivery," he and Squidward get lost in the desert while delivering a Krusty Krab Pizza. They both are on the verge of starvation; however, SpongeBob repeatedly refuses to let Squidward eat the pizza even though they would both die of starvation without it. *In "Employee of the Month," he gets very worried that Squidward would win the Employee of the Month award instead of him, hence he tries to sabotage Squidward (ironically making him try harder to get it, as he did not even care about it in the beginning). Finally, they both are exhausted and call a truce. However, once at work, they destroy the Krusty Krab from their "work." It then explodes from making too many Krabby Patties, thus customers pick them up and eat them for free. *In "Squidward, the Unfriendly Ghost]]," he sends Squidward up in the sky even though Squidward said no more favors. However, this is because he thought that Squidward was still dead, due to his naive nature. *In "Walking Small," he ruthlessly takes what he wants and accidentally drives everyone away from Goo Lagoon, but he was being manipulated by Plankton the whole time, so it technically is not his fault. *In "Christmas Who?," he cuts down Squidward's coral tree (which is actually illegal) and puts up decorations on Squidward's house even though Squidward said not to. *In "Pressure," he, along with Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward make fun of Sandy when she cannot do things that they as sea creatures can, due to being a land squirrel. *In "Squirrel Jokes," he makes fun of Sandy by making jokes of her species. Even though he promises Sandy that he will make no more squirrel jokes, he breaks this promise. He also tells her that people would be laughing "with" her, but they would actually laugh at her. However, this stops once Sandy starts acting dumb and injures SpongeBob. *In "Sailor Mouth," he uses foul language, along with Patrick (mostly sounding like dolphin chirps). *In "Just One Bite," he forced Squidward to eat a Krabby Patty by handcuffing himself to Squidward. *In "Nasty Patty," he helps Mr. Krabs create the eponymous tainted patty to "kill" Health Inspector Yellowtail whom they both thought was a fake and even put the nastiest things on the patty. *In "Can You Spare a Dime?," he picks up Mr. Krabs tightly by the neck out of frustration and yells at him. *In "Party Pooper Pants," Squidward goes to his party when his cables were cut, obviously by SpongeBob. *In "Pranks a Lot," he and Patrick trespass and scare everyone in Bikini Bottom as "ghosts," and attempt to burn Mr. Krabs' money. *In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, he ruthlessly scolds Mr. Krabs (though under the influence of the Triple Gooberberry Sunrise) because Mr. Krabs did not make him the manager of The Krusty Krab 2. *In "The Pink Purloiner," he creates a teddy plush bear with a microphone and speakers attached to itcalled the Confess-A-Bear as a means to hear Patrick reveal his personal secret(s) to him. *In "The Thing," he and Patrick antagonize Squidward by asking a lot of questions. They also break into the zoo and break out Squidward. *In "Driven to Tears," he tears up Patrick's driver's license and throws it out. *In "Best Day Ever," he scolds everyone who made him fail in having the best day ever. *In "Stanley S. SquarePants," after taking the blame for most of Stanley's mistakes, he finally explodes at both Mr. Krabs and Stanley when he sees that his spatula was broken by the latter. *In "Toy Store of Doom," he annoys an employee of Toy Barrel by singing. He, along with Patrick, also hides in the store past open hours. *In "A Pal for Gary," he scolds Gary for "being mean" to Puffy Fluffy, when it is actually the nudibranch who is attacking Gary. *In "Squidward in Clarinetland," Squidward must go through the torture that SpongeBob created to find his clarinet. *In "Rodeo Daze," he kidnaps the Bikini Bottomites who would not help him using Superb Bubble to help him save Sandy from a rodeo. *In "The Other Patty," he creates a new restaurant called The Flabby Patty which proves to be better than the Krabby Patty. He forces Mr. Krabs and Plankton to work together (much to their dismay) to get the recipe. When they finally do, they find out it was not a real recipe. SpongeBob reveals that he is the one who created the Flabby Patty just to get them to work together, which gets him chased by an angry Mr. Krabs and Plankton. *In "A SquarePants Family Vacation," he sends letters to his friends promising that everything they love will be at his house, which turns out to be a hoax and a plea for them to view his slideshow. *In "SpongeBob You're Fired," he hopes that Pizza Pete's "pepperoni" will fall off for firing him. Villainous role *In "Nasty Patty," he helps Mr. Krabs "poison" the health inspector and bury him when they thought he was dead. *In "Bummer Vacation," SpongeBob, thinking that he is being replaced by Patrick as the Krusty Krab's fry cook, has an insanity spree and goes after Patrick, showing signs that wants to eat him alive. It is later revealed that SpongeBob made Patrick watch static on a TV screen. *In the episode "The Abrasive Side," SpongeBob gets an abrasive side to make him more assertive. However, this causes him to not only chase away his friends, but also end up causing his grandmother to also get one. Scapegoat side *In "Karate Choppers," Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to stop karate for good. However, when he tells Sandy she does not believe him, and does karate around him. Krabs then fires SpongeBob even though he was not the one doing karate. However, Sandy then explains that she did not listen when he told her. *In "The Bully," Flats the Flounder repeatedly threatens to beat up SpongeBob. However, when he finally does, he discovers that SpongeBob is immune because he is an invertebrate. Flats tries for days until finally (at Boating School) collapsing from exhaustion. SpongeBob then gives a speech about it while making a fist gesture. Hence, Mrs. Puff thinks he had beaten him up intentionally, thus screaming "I'm going to kick your butt!" *In "New Student Starfish," Patrick comes with SpongeBob to boating school, in which he writes a letter calling Mrs. Puff a "big fat meany" and hands it to SpongeBob. Mrs. Puff then takes away one of SpongeBob's good noodle stars on the Good Noodle Board even though it is Patrick's fault. *In "Party Pooper Pants," SpongeBob is locked out of his house while throwing a party, hence he tries to break in, but is caught by the police. He then explains that it is his house and that he was locked out while throwing a party. However, he is then arrested for not inviting the Officers John Slugfish and Nancy O'Malley even though it is legal not to invite the police to a party. *In "Stanley S. SquarePants," SpongeBob's cousin works with him at the Krusty Krab (as Squidward moved away); he breaks many things, which SpongeBob claims are his fault. However, eventually SpongeBob cannot take it anymore and explains it is Stanley's fault. *In "Stuck in the Wringer," SpongeBob gets stuck in his bathroom wringer and then Patrick glues him so that he can be stuck forever. He cannot work, eat ice cream, or play the games at the carnival with the wringer on. After yelling at Patrick for what the forever glue did, he gets scolded by the townspeople for it. *In "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful," a piece of garbage falls off a statue of Squidward (made of garbage), so a cop gives Squidward a ticket for it even though it fell off on its own. Skills SpongeBob has been shown to have numerous extraordinary abilities and attributes over the course of the series (even though physically weak). *'Soft pliable body:' Due to his soft, pliable frame, he is capable of shapeshifting, has some degree of invulnerability, being able to absorb any type of physical impact, shown most notably in the episode "The Bully." *'Regeneration:' It is shown that he can quickly regenerate parts of his body that are injured or removed. *'Boneless:' SpongeBob is usually shown to be boneless (sea sponges being invertebrates). However, in some episodes, such as "I Had an Accident," bones are shown on his X-rays. He also has bones when his skin is ripped off in "Atlantis SquarePantis" and "The Splinter." *'Absorbent:' Being a sponge, he is also absorbent, and can expand his body by absorbing liquids. When he cries, he often re-absorbs his tears. An example being in "The Bully" when Flats the Flounder kept on hitting him, but SpongeBob just absorbed all of his blows. Also, in "I Had An Accident," he filter feeds through his holes, as he is a sponge. *'Singing and nose-playing': SpongeBob is shown to possess a fantastic singing voice. He uses his nose as a flute, in which he is very talented. He is also the lead singer in "Band Geeks." Later, he uses his nose flute in "Best Day Ever" to drive away the nematodes from the Krusty Krab. His nose flute is notably played as a closing note of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song. *'Fry cooking:' SpongeBob has a job cooking Krabby Patties at the Krusty Krab. *'Jellyfishing:' SpongeBob and Patrick jellyfish at Jellyfish Fields in several episodes. In "Jellyfish Hunter," he catches every single jellyfish in the fields. *'Tongue-boarding:' SpongeBob tongue-boards in "Pre-Hibernation Week." *'Survival skills:' In "To Save a Squirrel," SpongeBob and Patrick almost eat each other to survive. *'Bubble blowing:' SpongeBob can perform extraordinary moves with bubbles, most notably exhibited in "Bubblestand." It is considered along with jellyfishing as his and Patrick's favorite hobby. *'Driving:' He drives perfectly in various episodes, but drives recklessly on other episodes, which are in appearances of Mrs. Puff and her boating school. *'Karate:' He trains in karate perfectly and rarely mixes them up. *'Destruction:' Although, he does not know it and thanks to his poor driving skills, SpongeBob is actually skilled at Demolition Derbies. This is shown in "Demolition Doofus," as SpongeBob (who uses the name "Le Squish") manages to defeat five other competitors (also surviving against Mrs. Puff). Quotes *"Order up!" *"Barnacles!" *"Tartar sauce!" *"Ah, shrimp!" *"I'm ready!" *"My brain just hatched an idea!" *"Patrick, I don't wanna face my fears! I'm afraid of 'em!" *"Well then, I guess it's time to take it up-a-notch." *"This is gonna be classic." Role in the series (TBA) Category:Characters Category:Heroes Category:Nicktoons Hero Gang